| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | New Living Translation |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1The Israelites did evil in the LORD’s sight. So the LORD handed them over to the Midianites for seven years. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2The Midianites were so cruel that the Israelites made hiding places for themselves in the mountains, caves, and strongholds. |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, marauders from Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east would attack Israel, |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4camping in the land and destroying crops as far away as Gaza. They left the Israelites with nothing to eat, taking all the sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys. |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5These enemy hordes, coming with their livestock and tents, were as thick as locusts; they arrived on droves of camels too numerous to count. And they stayed until the land was stripped bare. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites. Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help. |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7When they cried out to the LORD because of Midian, |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8the LORD sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of slavery in Egypt. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9I rescued you from the Egyptians and from all who oppressed you. I drove out your enemies and gave you their land. |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10I told you, ‘I am the LORD your God. You must not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you now live.’ But you have not listened to me.” |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11Then the angel of the LORD came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!” |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The LORD brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15“But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16The LORD said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17Gideon replied, “If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the LORD speaking to me. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.” He answered, “I will stay here until you return.” |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with a basket of flour he baked some bread without yeast. Then, carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out and presented them to the angel, who was under the great tree. |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20The angel of God said to him, “Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it.” And Gideon did as he was told. |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21Then the angel of the LORD touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. And the angel of the LORD disappeared. |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he cried out, “Oh, Sovereign LORD, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!” |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23“It is all right,” the LORD replied. “Do not be afraid. You will not die.” |
| 24[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 24And Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which means “the LORD is peace”). The altar remains in Ophrah in the land of the clan of Abiezer to this day. |
| 25[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 25That night the LORD said to Gideon, “Take the second bull from your father’s herd, the one that is seven years old. Pull down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole standing beside it. |
| 26[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 26Then build an altar to the LORD your God here on this hilltop sanctuary, laying the stones carefully. Sacrifice the bull as a burnt offering on the altar, using as fuel the wood of the Asherah pole you cut down.” |
| 27[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 27So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD had commanded. But he did it at night because he was afraid of the other members of his father’s household and the people of the town. |
| 28[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 28Early the next morning, as the people of the town began to stir, someone discovered that the altar of Baal had been broken down and that the Asherah pole beside it had been cut down. In their place a new altar had been built, and on it were the remains of the bull that had been sacrificed. |
| 29[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 29The people said to each other, “Who did this?” And after asking around and making a careful search, they learned that it was Gideon, the son of Joash. |
| 30[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 30“Bring out your son,” the men of the town demanded of Joash. “He must die for destroying the altar of Baal and for cutting down the Asherah pole.” |
| 31[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 31But Joash shouted to the mob that confronted him, “Why are you defending Baal? Will you argue his case? Whoever pleads his case will be put to death by morning! If Baal truly is a god, let him defend himself and destroy the one who broke down his altar!” |
| 32[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 32From then on Gideon was called Jerub-baal, which means “Let Baal defend himself,” because he broke down Baal’s altar. Gideon Asks for a Sign |
| 33[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 33Soon afterward the armies of Midian, Amalek, and the people of the east formed an alliance against Israel and crossed the Jordan, camping in the valley of Jezreel. |
| 34[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 34Then the Spirit of the LORD clothed Gideon with power. He blew a ram’s horn as a call to arms, and the men of the clan of Abiezer came to him. |
| 35[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 35He also sent messengers throughout Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali, summoning their warriors, and all of them responded. |
| 36[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 36Then Gideon said to God, “If you are truly going to use me to rescue Israel as you promised, |
| 37[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 37prove it to me in this way. I will put a wool fleece on the threshing floor tonight. If the fleece is wet with dew in the morning but the ground is dry, then I will know that you are going to help me rescue Israel as you promised.” |
| 38[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 38And that is just what happened. When Gideon got up early the next morning, he squeezed the fleece and wrung out a whole bowlful of water. |
| 39[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 39Then Gideon said to God, “Please don’t be angry with me, but let me make one more request. Let me use the fleece for one more test. This time let the fleece remain dry while the ground around it is wet with dew.” |
| 40[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 40So that night God did as Gideon asked. The fleece was dry in the morning, but the ground was covered with dew. |
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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